Accident or Fate?
by MelodyCurious
Summary: When knocked off course and their ship crash-lands, visitors arrive at Tracy Island.
1. Chapter 1

_I've thought long and hard about submitting this for viewing and finaly taken the leap. I've always writen for my own pleasure all my life - as no doubt we all do, so i trust you will bear with me. I recently found some tales I wrote many years ago and decided to update them. This is one of them._

_I grew up with the Tracy Boys, and loved every minute of their adventures. I've found that love again, and wish to share this._

_Thank you for reading._

Earth; third planet of the star named Sol and home to the human race. A young race by many standards; slowly making its stumbling way through the hazards of existence and out into the reaches of space. In orbit around the planet were many objects, some forgotten and abandoned, others still in use. Only one was carefully hidden to all scanning devices on the planet, except to those who also shared it's secret.

Thunderbird 5 turned slowly as it orbited the blue/green jewel that was the Earth. Inside, the only occupant was currently watching the depths of space through a telescope. Every now and then, he would pause and make a few notes on a pad beside himself, before fixing his eye once more to the eyepiece, a contented smile on his face. The sudden shrill of an alarm setting off, jerked him from his quiet review and had him running to the main console. Nimble fingers, use to having run the keys so many times before, danced over the console until an image was displayed on the main screen. A large meteoroid – roughly about 20 – 30 feet had entered the scanner range and was heading towards the earth. A few seconds later he had the impact location.

"Oh boy"

On a lush tropical island in the Pacific, dawn was just breaking. But Jefferson Tracy had been up for an hour already. Old habits died hard, and having been forced to raise a family and hold down fulltime work after the death of his beloved wife, he was normally up before the larks. As he sipped his coffee at his desk, he read over the internet news.

On the wall in front of him, the picture of his son John started to flash. Jeff was a little surprised at such an early call, but none the less, he flipped the button to open the holo-channel to the space-station.

"Morning John, what's wrong?"

"Morning dad, scanners have just picked up a rather large meteoroid heading towards Tracy Island. Thought you'd like to know"

"That's pretty serious. Where will it hit?" Already his mind was starting to race about waking the rest of the house and would they have time to get to the shelters. John's gaze looked off to one side as he worked the instruments at his end.

"Impact should be about half a mile off shore; sending through the co-ordinates now."

Jeff ripped off the emerging paper strip and nodded.

"I'll keep everyone inside until it lands. It's going to make one heck of a noise when it does hit; any signs of it breaking up?"

On board the station, John checked more instruments and the scanners. The meteoroid had reached the upper atmosphere of earth. As he watched it, his eyes widen slightly, Jeff noticed.

"What's wrong John?"

"I…I don't think it's a meteoroid Dad... it just altered its angle for re-entry"

Jeff whistled slightly under his breath.

"Can you plot its trajectory back John, where did it come from"

"FAB"

A few more seconds of stabbing at buttons and they had there answer.

"It originates outside our Solar system"

"Seems, we have visitors; Thanks John, I'll wake the others and keep you posted"

Ten minutes later, Jeff watched from the balcony with his four other sons as the glowing object crashed into the ocean off-shore. The sea around it exploded into steam with the sudden intense heat, and it was some minutes before they could see what had landed. What they could see of the object, was a roughly pointed section, jutting out of the water a little off shore.

Scott and Virgil headed down to the small jetty and set off in the boat to try and bring the object to land. Meanwhile the others made there way down to the shore.

Virgil cut the motor as they drew alongside the object, this close to it they could see it was silver in colour and showed no signs of being subjected to any form of heat. In fact no warmth radiated from the surface at all. Scott's wrist com buzzed and he toggled it on.

"We've reached the craft father, doesn't show any signs of being damaged from what I can see. Short of going in the water – which I'm not before you say anything – it'll have to wait until we can get it ashore"

Virgil was attempting to attach a magnetic clamp to the nearest piece of the object, but it just kept falling off.

"Clamps not working Scott, I'm going to try and get a line round that crest"

"Just be careful Virgil"

Five minutes later, the two men had a secure line round what resembled a crest and Scott turned the boat towards the shore.


	2. Chapter 2

_The Characters I introduce here were created by myself many years ago, a once wrote about an alien healer and her companions. It seemed natural at the time this was first writen - and belive me it bears little resembalnce to that original form now - so I've kept them in for a reason._

_I don't own the Tracy's, I wish I did - I would be one happy lass._

_Thank you for reading._

Slowly her eyes opened and took in the dim emergency lighting, the console before her blinked in colours she knew meant her two companions were also alive, if somewhat dazed but recovering quickly. Secure within the flight harness, she closed her eyes again briefly and checked herself over for any damage. Finding none, she relaxed until something banged against the ships hull, and suddenly the sensation of floating without realising it, stopped. A dull groan echoed round the chamber and she looked up towards the ceiling.

"Report Skara; any damage?" The reply seemed to come from all around.

"Minor, thankfully. The collision knocked out the guidance system briefly, and we lost total control…"

"Tell me about it…" Another voice muttered from the darkness and there was the faint sound of liquid moving.

"I was able to make adjustment for entering the planetary atmosphere, and we seem to have landed into …" there was a pause while data was being checked. "Salt water. Readings indicate an almost normal gravity level, nitrogen rich atmosphere, but with a breathable oxygen content"

"So, some good news at least" She unlocked her harness and stood up slowly, easing the kinks out of her tail.

"You okay Fe'la?" The voice in the darkness snorted.

"I'd like to know what hit us, and get back to it"

"We went too close to an Oort cloud I think, I'm afraid my data is a little vague at that point"

"The important thing now is to check for damage, locate where we are and do what we need to do"

"Ktara… it would seem we haven't arrived unnoticed" An image floated in the air before the woman, and she watched as a number of humanoid beings, two of which were coiling what looked like a rope, stood well back from the beached craft. At the centre of the group was an grey-haired elder, they just seemed to be waiting.

"Not what I was planning on"

"What now?"

"No visable weapons, they also don't seem that afraid of what they see. What's the tech level of this world?"

"Space flight achieved, but only within their system. Numerous probes have been sent out into the void, though I can't access any data to tell me if any have been found in the federation "

She nodded, looking once more at the group she saw no fear in what they looked at, more interest than anything else.

"Guess it's time to meet the natives. I hope their friendly"

There was a growl in the darkness.

"We know the drill"

Ktara walked to the airlock and activated the shielding device on her belt, in a moment her body was covered in a mirror-like effect, which would give her enough protection to get back inside if things turned nasty.

"Here goes nothing" and she stepped into the airlock, the inner door cycled shut behind her.

The craft had been landed as best they could, it seemed there was more to it, then the crested section. John's data had indicated something almost 30 feet in length, and it sure looked like that was true. Nothing happened for some time; though they did get the impression that something was watching them, that sixth sense all humans shared at times was screaming fit to burst. Finally their waiting was rewarded when a small portal opened to one side and a figure – it was humanoid, as in having two arms, two legs and a central torso and head – stepped out. It was covered in a silver glow, so no details were visible, and didn't move from the portal.

Jeff kept his voice low.

"First contact boys… John would give his eye-teeth to be here for this"

He raised his voice slightly and took a step forward; hands out to his sides showing they held nothing.

"We mean you no harm. Can you understand?"

{Ktara watched the group, noting where each one stood in relation to the elder. She assumed the tall dark-haired one next to him was his second or guard from the way he stood ready to rush in and protect the elder. Taking a small breath, she opened the channels in her mind, emotions started to come in. There was Concern; also curiosity; a little fear that was to be understood, after all. There was also a link here, a family link. These humanoids – these males - were all related to each other, they looked to the grey-haired one as their father.

She sensed no malice from any of them; it was almost as if they had been waiting for something like this to happen. The elder's spoken words were just gibberish to her ears, but this was always the case when new races were first encountered. Perhaps that was why the Healers had developed that other ability they were so renowned for: The ability to absorb a language from touch. Though it did come with a price}

Jeff could tell from the small movements, that the visitor was watching them all. He had no idea what to really do, and had decided to rely on common sense. The being reached back with one hand and touched the side of the craft briefly, then it walked towards them. Scott – without thought – pushed himself a little in front of his father. Jeff smiled slightly at his son's devotion, they were all the same.

It stopped a few feet in front of Alan and Gordon; Alan took a small step backwards without thinking about it. This close up, they could see that the being was smaller then they were, being roughly five and a half feet in height, it also seemed to have something hanging down behind it. Its hand moved to what must have been a belt and the silver glow faded away, revealing their visitor for the first time.

She, for it was female, just regarded the two men calmly with purple eyes. Her features were human looking, though more pointed and her skin was very pale. White hair hung to her shoulders, and they couldn't help but notice the tail that waved slightly. She smiled slightly, pointed first to Alan then Gordon and held up one hand palm outwards and waited.

{She knew she was taking a risk here, new species and everything, but being able to communicate fully out weighted the disadvantages. They seemed much like any other humanoid race she'd come across, every second she was building up a better understanding of their people – though she would have to come into contact with a female of the species to get full knowledge. Now all she had to do was wait until one of the two younger males understood she wanted them to touch her hand}

Gordon swallowed slightly and couldn't stop himself from looking at the visitor's eyes. They were such a vivid colour, golden scalia surrounding a purple centre, it was a shade he'd seen many times in the ocean depths, and almost without thinking about it, he started to raise his hand to join hers.

"Gordon. Be careful!"

He jumped slightly, but she never stopped looking at him, just tilted her head slightly as if in encouragement.

"I don't think she'll hurt me Dad" and their flesh touched.

To Gordon, it felt like he was rushing through a tunnel, images passed, words, things he'd never thought possible. Cities floating miles high in the sky, the land below lush and green. Oceans covering whole planets, people – he couldn't call them aliens, after all that would mean everyone was an alien to someone – going about their lives, living and breathing different gases or substances. And as all this went pass, inside his brain a language base was building.

"Oh…"

He knew or understood that the same was happening for her, and for the other two minds that seemed to also ride her own. So why didn't he feel afraid?

Jeff was stunned slightly by the speed at which things had happened. Gordon, acting on his own – or so he hoped, if he'd been forced into this, it didn't bode well for First Contact – and now they both stood like statues staring into each others eyes. He noticed a film of sweat starting to form on his son's forehead, and Gordon trembled slightly.

So tired… why was he feeling so tired? He'd just gotten up, hadn't done much the day before and now this?

_~I'm sorry~_

And contact was broken.


	3. Chapter 3

_First off, I'm sorry this next chapter took so long to be edited. Looking over it, the original draft for Skara which was ok when your 15 just didn't work, and it was sometime before I worked out what to do with her. I've also had to stop myself editing, as I can suffer from doing too much and end up destroying the tale - I'll keep my fingers crossed that that hasn't happened._

_Thunderbirds and all the Tracy's belong only to Mr Anderson. The aliens Ktara, Fe'la and Skara are my own creations._

_Thank you for reading. Also Thank you to Tikatu for pointing out the massive error the gremlins decided to put in... I hope it's sorted now._

Gordon staggered backwards and was quickly caught by Alan, Jeff frowned grimly, pushing forward heedless of Scott beside him.

"What have you done to my son?" Like any parent, his children's safety came first and any harm visited on them… well, they'd just better watch out.

The woman turned towards him, after staring at Gordon a moment longer. When she did speak, it was heavily accented, as if she was still trying to understand all the nuances.

"My ... sorrow... apologies; I do not mean to bring harm… to him. To learn this… speech… language, I ... need ... require contact… it drains… somewhat. He will recover… fully... to hurt… bring harm is not my nature"

"I'm ok Dad; just tired… gee that was some ride"

"Maybe you should think first, before diving in" Alan muttered to him, Gordon shook his head and grinned.

"And miss what I saw? No way, you're only jealous"

Jeff watched the two and calmed a little. Gordon sat on the sand now, rubbing his forehead. He was amazed at the images he'd been shown, more so the ones that related to her home world. Evolved from feline-like creatures? well that explained the eyes and tail.

"Very well, I'll accept that. I'm Jeff Tracy and these are some of my sons." Jeff introduced them one by one; each smiled – slightly in Scott's case, ever on guard – and greeted her. "I don't know what brought you to our world, but I'd like to welcome you in the name of humanity"

She inclined her head slightly at his introduction and placed a hand on her own chest.

"Ktara, I am a … healer… medic. We were hit by a … meteor… comet. Landed here, yet have no knowledge… of where here is"

"Lost huh?" Virgil muttered Scott spoke up.

"You said we, so there are more of you inside?" Ktara nodded slowly, watching him.

"We are three in total"

"Well, their more than welcome to come out, we won't hurt them"

"I must warn you though "Her use of the language was improving, the accent was slowly disappearing. "They are not like myself"

She moved back to the silver craft and placed a hand near where the portal had been, the seamless metal opened once more, and a being the size and shape of a medium dog emerged. It resembled – for want of better words – a mad mans idea for the Cheshire Cat. The fur was pale green, shot through with darker stripes, large turquoise eyes regarded them without blinking; even the marking on its face gave the impression of a fixed smile.

"This is Fe'la, being my navigator is one of her many talents. And this…"

Ktara let her hand drop from the silver surface and slowly took a few steps back; she stared fondly at the craft and smiled. The bright metallic sheen dimmed and a duller, mottled pattern begun to emerge from inside. The surface seemed to undulate as they watched giving the impression of a fluid rather than solid, there was also the feeling of something watching them.

"Is my ship; Skara"

"It's alive?" More a statement then question, Ktara nodded.

"She is my ship, my companion and my friend"

Jeff was thankful once more for choosing such an out of the way island for his home and secret base. No planes flew over on trade routes, and anything coming near – either in the airspace or by sea – they would have warning of. It seemed this day there was more than one secret on Tracy Island, that didn't need bringing to the worlds attention. The heat was starting to rise and as the crisis seemed to have passed, he glanced at his sons.

Scott met his gaze; who still frowned, but shrugged his shoulders slightly. Virgil just stared at the visitors, and Jeff knew his son would be painting latter. Alan's gaze was flitting between the three with undisguised pleasure – Alan was still so much a kid at times, no matter how grown up he thought himself. While Gordon remained seated on the sand, one arm on his raised knee the other behind, his gaze rarely left Ktara. Jeff couldn't help but wonder what his son had experienced. Given a choice, he would have offered himself, but she, Ktara, he corrected his thoughts, must have had a reason for choosing his youngest sons. Perhaps it would have been worse for one his age?

"Least we can do is offer our hospitality while you get yourselves sorted; our home's this way if you'll like to join us?"

"You are most kind, thank you" Fe'la stretched, again recalling to their thoughts a cat, and padded towards where Jeff had indicated. Ktara fell into step behind him and followed him up to the house. The boys were quick to follow, though Virgil did linger for a few moments watching the patterns drift over Skara.

The first thing Jeff did when they entered the main room was to open the com-link to Thunderbird 5.

"Hi Father, is everything ok, no damage?"

Ktara noticed the family resemblance – another son it seemed: the missing brother from Gordon's thoughts.

"Couldn't be better John, thought you'd like to know the outcome of our little incident earlier"

Jeff beckoned Ktara over to him, and John gave a small whistle when he saw her.

"Whoa! She's hot… sorry" Virgil laughed at his brother's discomfort and Scott muttered, folding his arms as he sat down.

"We'd noticed"

"This is Ktara; John, she'll be staying here with her companions while they get themselves sorted. We were just about to have a talk, and I knew you'd want to be in on it. Unless something's brewing I should know about?"

John shook his head, after checking his monitors.

"Everything's FAB on the world front Father, thanks for cutting me in"

Sitting down Ktara rested a hand briefly on Fe'la beside her; the other turned her head and blinked once slowly.

"What do you wish to know?"

"I think it's more a case of, what are you allowed to tell us. You'll have realised that we're rather limited in the space exploration department. I imagine there's a standard way of going about things like this for your people, but anything you tell us will not go beyond this family. You have my word on that"

She nodded, knowing his word was his bond – she'd picked so much up from the brief encounter with Gordon's mind – plus he also had his own secret.

"Very well, we are members of a federation spanning many planetary systems. While most member races pursue their own goals and way of life, some of us choose to offer our talents to the good of the whole. I am a Healer, one of many from all member races of the federation. It is our task to travel where needed and deal with any medical emergency that is there. I bring aid to the sick and hopefully prevent deaths. "

"So you were heading somewhere then?" She nodded at Scott

"Yes, to the Callabast system. A sickness has broken out at one of their major centres; some are convinced it is due to off-world visitors. It is my task to identify and hopefully neutralize this, before it grows too large"

"So what happened?" Virgil asked as he absentmindedly stroked the fur on Fe'la's head. To her surprise, the navigator closed her eyes, allowing the contact.

"Most systems are surrounded by a cloud of matter from which stray meteors and comets arise. I'm not certain, but Skara believes we were hit by one such as we passed by. Unfortunately, we have no idea how long any of us were unconscious for. Skara sustained some damage to her outer sensors during the blow, so hence no true idea as to where we are"

"What'll happen when you don't turn up? Will they send a search party out?"

She shook her head.

"We will be reported missing and that will be all. They will not waste resources looking for us, it would be pointless"

"I'm sorry; we'll do what we can to help you get back"

"Thank you. Now tell me, if you will… is this truly normal for your world?" She gestured towards the holograms of his sons, of John in full uniform. Jeff shook his head and smiled.

"That's another story, and after you've been open with us, it's only fair to tell you"

They both listened as Jeff explained about his dream, about the creation of the Thunderbirds, of International Rescue and all it entailed. It sounded not unlike the views held by the federation's member races.

_~" Seems like their getting there"~ _

Ktara could only nod, both to Jeff's descriptions and to Skara's inner voice. He continued with his tale, about the people worldwide that helped them, and about their continued need for secrecy.

"Your aim is similar to that of the federation, there are many who think that way also. Though to find someone so young, who could design all this is truly amazing"

"I'd be happy to show you around, if you like?" Scott said standing up; Virgil frowned.

"Do you believe I can be trusted with this?" Scott opened his mouth to reply but his father spoke first.

"You trusted us enough to come out and speak with us, Ktara that took a lot of guts. Least we can do is show you around "He looked at his sons, it wasn't hard to tell that both Scott and Virgil were interested in their guest. John looked a little crest-fallen, but knowing him, that was because he couldn't spend hours talking to her about space.

"But there is one condition" Jeff looked at each of them in turn.

"You show your own craft. No one else's, understood?"

There was a reluctant chorus of "Yes Father" and Scott indicated that Ktara should follow him. Fe'la remained where she was on the sofa and rested her head on her arms.


End file.
